Prof Pól Ó Dochartaigh said it was important to “to think about the movement patterns” of people across the country in advance of the return of university and college classes.
Prof Ó Dochartaigh said he recognised that many students were involved in their local sports clubs and had part-time jobs at weekends to help finance their studies, but “in an ideal world” where it was possible students should consider staying in their college accommodation for the semester and going home “only occasionally.”
“It's very different from going to school on a daily basis ... it's very different than the work patterns," he said on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne.
He added: “Students go on a weekly basis, they will be meeting others from all over the country and then going back into their home communities and that is a potential spreader, there's no doubt about that, for all of the universities, for all of the colleges in the country, so I think it would be really important that students, if at all possible, were to stay in the campus, in the university, in the college setting, for most of the semester.”
Prof Ó Dochartaigh said he understood this would be “a tough ask” especially for first years.
“We're not saying to people that you absolutely must do this, come hell or high water, but I think where anyone can reasonably do that and can cope with that, I think they should consider it, seriously.”
